How Do Incredibly Stupid People Get Elected To Congress?

[mythology]

12. Because republicans have kept nominating people further and further to the right

Some of it is the primary system in which a candidate is competing for money/volunteers/votes from just within their own party, a system that favors those most likely to donate and volunteer who are most likely to be the dyed in the wool conservatives. Democrats haven't really experienced this as much because the furthest left don't tend to be all that organized politically in my opinion. In a closely divided electoral system (which ours largely is across the country, although republican redistricting efforts have made it seem a lot closer than it is), turn out matters a lot. This is one of the things Obama's team was so good at. They amassed an army of volunteers and people who donated. That matters. An ad on tv can get your name out, but your neighbor telling you reasons to vote for one candidate leaves a more lasting impression.

Additionally the parties have worked to create far more safe districts which would move the tipping point to one side or the other. If a district is 70% republican and 30% democrat, then a candidate can be that much further to the right before losing too many more moderate republicans due to the first past the post system.

Some of it is that republicans really have done everything they can to not listen to anybody outside of the circle. It's why they were so convinced that Romney was set to win the election because nobody who could actually do math was believed. They've created an us against the world mentality which only increases the stridency.

And you can't discount the fact that a substantial portion of the republican party is just that damn stupid.